


the dirt in which our roots may grow

by stupidgaytree



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Post-Finale, Short & Sweet, this would be g-rated but aubrey says shit Once, whoa gay people
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-11-07 13:47:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20818292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stupidgaytree/pseuds/stupidgaytree
Summary: Aubrey reflexively closes her eyes again. "What...?" she mumbles."I wanna show you something," Dani says. Aubrey is overwhelmingly tempted to roll over and go back to sleep, but Dani sounds so genuinely excited she opens her eyes again. Her vision is still blurred, but she can see Dani smiling, hair still tangled by sleep, and with one last groan she pushes herself up on her elbow.





	the dirt in which our roots may grow

"...brey.  _ Aubrey _ . Babe, wake up."

Aubrey groans and presses her forearm against her eyes. She cracks one open and is met by… near-total darkness. Except for Dani, kneeling next to her, skin and eyes glowing and outline slowly separating from the rest of the darkness. Aubrey reflexively closes her eyes again. "What...?" she mumbles.

"I wanna show you something," Dani says. Aubrey is overwhelmingly tempted to roll over and go back to sleep, but Dani sounds so genuinely excited she opens her eyes again. Her vision is still blurred, but she can see Dani smiling, hair still tangled by sleep, and with one last groan she pushes herself up on her elbow.

"Okay," she says, "Okay. One second. Let me…"

Dani waits for her to get her bearings -- they are, of course, still in the shelter of the overhang they found last night when it started raining out of nowhere. Aubrey glances over her shoulder and sees Janelle and Alexandra still sound asleep. And she doesn't need to look to know Dr. Bonkers is likewise, a few inches behind her.

"Oh, am I the only one getting the pleasure of waking up at who-knows-when?" she asks. It comes out grumpier than she means it to, but Dani doesn't seem to take notice.

"I think it's like four am," she says, "Or equivalent. And yes. You are."

Dani leads her out from under the overhang, into the vaguely forest-like area that surrounds it before it begins cutting into mountains. It's different than Earth forests in a way Aubrey can't quite describe, and not just in the plant life, though that's pretty weird too. Dew trickles down her calves and into her hastily-shoved-on shoes, moisture clinging at her neck and collecting between her and Dani's hands. It's still pretty dark, even with the clear sky above showing off every star for light-years and both moons, so she sticks close to Dani and trusts her much better night-vision, afraid to disturb the air with a fire.

They break through what counts for a tree-line here, and Aubrey stares down a slope for a few minutes before realizing she can  _ see  _ the slope. Dani raises her free hand and points; as the hill descends, all the way down to where fog collects at the bottom, more and more little glowing plants grow in patches. Aubrey can just barely see insects flitting around in their light.

"Whoa," she says. Without looking, she can tell Dani is smiling, feels it radiate off her. "Do you… what are they?"

"I don't know," Dani says gleefully, "They never grew in the city. Willing to bet they weren't growing out here, either, for a while there." She squeezes Aubrey's hand.

"Holy shit," says Aubrey. In the back of her brain, she thanks Sylvain for still working at this. The response she gets is somewhere between  _ that's my job _ and  _ it wasn't all me. _

"I wanted to go check them out, but I didn't want to bother them. And I thought you'd like to see them. Since they probably don't do this in the daytime, and we'll be gone by nighttime tomorrow."

"I -- yeah." Aubrey breathes out. A cool breeze rolls over the hill from behind them, bending the glowing plants gently at the stems. "Thank you, Dani."

Dani kisses her cheek, soft and lingering, smiling against Aubrey's skin. "No need. I kind of just wanted to be out here with you."

Aubrey laughs, but she tries to keep it quiet. Like Dani said, she can't help but be afraid to disturb the plants. "Well," she says after a few more moments, a little reluctantly, "We should probably go back."

Dani nods. They linger a few moments more, then Dani leads her back into the darkened forest, all the way to the overhang. She settles onto their shared roll-up mattress -- because it slipped Aubrey's mind to pack one of her own -- and then pulls Aubrey clumsily down with her. Aubrey presses in against her, making the most of the lack of space, pulling the blanket back up before tucking her face against Dani's neck. Dani makes a soft noise and squeezes her hand, fingers still threaded together.

"I love you," she says to Dani, muffled and mostly unthinking, just before she falls back asleep.

"I love you too," Dani says softly, without hesitation. It echoes in Aubrey's dreams.

**Author's Note:**

> @teamsweetflips on tumblr! im working on something relatively long right now of These Gals so look forward to that in october. or dont, i dont control your wants.
> 
> sad about the finale but extremely excited that i am officially allowed to do whatever the fuck i want. my canon now. the boys gave it up


End file.
